Why You Can’t Live Without a Budget

Mastering the art of budgeting is vital to financial success because a budget is a plan to ensure that you not only use your income to meet your expenses but also save for the things that you desire to make your life better.

Nobody can control their spending, or save for the future, without a plan. A successful budget is the key to achieving your dreams including holidays, owning a home, buying a new car or starting a business. In fact the dreams and goals that you set as you journey along through life. However the scary truth is that very few people actually prepare and stick to a detailed household budget.

Here at Holiday Coast, we are committed to your financial success, so we will provide you with all the knowledge and tools you will need to create a budget that works for you.

How to Start Budgeting

Creating an effective budget is a difficult job because many of us do not know where our money goes. Most of us overestimate our ability to save and underestimate our capacity to spend. This is why many people end up living from pay day to the next pay day or use a credit card to cover everyday expenses.

Start your budgeting by listing everything that you normally purchase on a weekly or monthly basis. Don’t forget bills that arrive on a quarterly and yearly basis! Now estimate how much each item will cost you per week, per fortnight or per month. We recommend that you work the expenses out using the same period for which your pay comes in eg. weekly. fortnightly or monthly.

The easiest way to do this is to use the Holiday Coast budget calculator. This tool will make creating a budget easy by doing the math for you. Our staff at Holiday Coast are also there to help you with preparing a budget call, simply call 1300 365 7 24 or drop into one of our Branches

Now that you have a budget setup, you need to check how accurate your estimates were. At the end of the month compare the budget to your credit card and bank statements to see if you stayed within your budget. Do not get discouraged if you did not, because it usually takes several months for the average person to learn to create an accurate budget and to follow that budget.

Living Within Your Budget

The best way to think of a budget is a road map that guides you to achieving spending and saving goals. Following it will help you reach these goals, but there are shortcuts you can take to help you reach these goals faster.

For example - at Holiday Coast you can use a "point account"(a sub account if you like) to ‘hide’ money from yourself. This strategy is especially useful if you have a "binge" spending problem. Other tips you can use are: using a debit card so that you only ever spend your own money and using online bill pay to pay your regular bills.

How Mobile Banking Can Help

A good habit to develop is to check your account balances online regularly and in the early stages of budgeting every day to monitor your transactions and your balances. This will let you see if you are living within your budget and give you a chance to re-adjust as needed. Sign up for Internet banking and then Mobile Banking to stay in control of your finances anywhere, anytime.

If you’d like to know more about budgeting and how internet banking and mobile banking can help you better manage your finances, call 1300 365 7 24 or drop into a Holiday Coast branch near you.

This article provides general information only and should not be relied upon as financial product advice.